About Helmet
Helmet is an American alternative metal band from New York City formed in 1989 by vocalist and lead guitarist Page Hamilton. Helmet has had numerous lineup changes with Hamilton as the only constant member. Since 2010, the band has consisted of Hamilton, drummer Kyle Stevenson, guitarist Dan Beeman and bassist Dave Case.
Helmet has released nine studio albums and two compilation albums. After releasing their debut album, Strap It On , on Amphetamine Reptile, Helmet signed to Interscope Records and released three albums for the label, including the highly successful Meantime . Their next two albums ― Betty and Aftertaste ― were also successful, but did not match the critical or popular acclaim of Meantime. Helmet broke up in 1998, but reformed in 2004, and has since released five more albums ― Size Matters , Monochrome , Seeing Eye Dog , Dead to the World , and their latest, Left .
Hamilton formed Helmet in early 1989 after leaving the alternative rock group Band of Susans with whom he had recorded two albums. Having originally moved to New York to study jazz guitar at the Manhattan School of Music, the Oregon born guitarist recruited bassist Henry Bogdan who was also from Oregon, Australian guitarist Peter Mengede and Floridian drummer John Stanier as the group's first official line-up. Before Hamilton had settled on a name, the guitarist Peter Mengede's then-wife Reyne Cuccuro suggested the Germanic name "Helmuth". Hamilton misinterpreted her and mistakenly believed that she was referring to the form of protective gear. Hamilton then thought excitedly that Helmet had "sounded like a pretty cool name for a band" and opted for the Anglicized spelling. Other names taken in consideration were "Cry Ruth" and "Poly Orchids", along with the more esoteric and obscure "Tuna Lorenzo" and "Froth Albumen".
They were spotted by Tom Hazelmyer, guitarist of the band Halo of Flies, and signed to Hazelmeyer's label Amphetamine Reptile Records, releasing their first 7 inch single, "Born Annoying", later that year. Amphetamine Reptile released Helmet's debut studio album Strap It On in 1990, selling over 40,000 copies soon thereafter. Hazelmyer once stated that the album kept the label going through the 1990s.
Although Strap It On had achieved significant local success, major record labels were not interested in signing Helmet until after Nirvana achieved mainstream success in 1991, bringing the alternative music scene into the mainstream. Sometime thereafter, the band began receiving major label record deals from Relativity, Warner Bros. and Interscope Records. Although Hamilton wanted Helmet to sign with Warner Bros., the band ended up signing with Interscope in early 1992. The band received a $1.2 million dollar advance from Interscope split between three albums and $50,000 worth of tour support, along with an unprecedented amount of control over their work. Their first album for Interscope, Meantime, was released in 1992 and certified gold in 1994. The album has sold over two million copies worldwide and remains Helmet's top-selling album. Helmet toured the United States, Brazil, Europe, and Asia relentlessly, generally with other AmRep recording artists. Internal tensions rose high at times.
In early 1993, Peter Mengede left Helmet due to a contractual dispute. He would later join the supergroup Handsome in 1995, which released one album on Epic Records in 1997 before disbanding. Mengede was replaced by Rob Echeverria, guitarist from the hardcore band Rest in Pieces. Helmet also made a song for the movie Judgment Night called Just Another Victim in collaboration with House of Pain. Helmet's third album, Betty, was released in 1994. Despite managing the band's highest-ever chart position on the Billboard 200 at number 45, the album did not sell as many copies as Meantime. In 1995, the band appeared in The Jerky Boys: The Movie, covering Black Sabbath's "Symptom of the Universe" with Ozzy Osbourne making a cameo appearance as the band's manager. Later, after recording and touring in support of Betty, Echeverria made an amicable departure from the band to join Biohazard.
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